SAO PAULO -- Brazil plans to increase its troop presence in areas that border the Amazon, deploying 28 new units to join the 23 existing ones in the region and bolstering its military personnel from 25,000 to 30,000, Agencia Estado reported Sunday.

The Defense Ministry's "Amazon Protected" project seeks to safeguard indigenous reservations and the border, the news agency said.

The additional forces will allow the military to move from a strategy centered on manning bases to one that features units that constantly move around.

The security project will cost an estimated $428.6 million over the next nine years, with another $60 million being spent to modernize existing bases, the Defense Ministry said.

Brazil's Amazonian border covers 6 million sq. kilometers (2.31 million sq. miles) and is shared with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela and French Guiana.